Domain-Specific Hardware Accelerators (DSHA) are natural components in the evolution of general computers. However, designing and simulating hardware in Hardware Description Languages (HDL) often requires more effort for the developers and might not be suitable in all scenarios, which makes high-level language-based software simulators for computer hardware attractive. Yet, choosing which simulation framework to use can be challenging due to the lack of comparative studies of high-level language-based simulators. This paper presents a comparative evaluation of state-of-the-art simulation frameworks that simulate computer hardware in high-level languages like C++. The contemporary simulators used in this study were selected from the 79 articles introducing novel AI accelerators referenced in our previous survey. We have identified six simulators that are suitable for AI accelerator evaluation, and provide a deeper analysis of three of them. © 2024 IEEE.

Today’s smart monitoring applications need machine learning models and data mining algorithms that are capable of analysing and mining the temporal component of data streams. These models and algorithms also ought to take into account the multi-source nature of the sensor data by being able to conduct multi-view analysis. In this study, we address these challenges by introducing a novel multi-view data stream clustering approach, entitled MST-MVS clustering, that can be applied in different smart monitoring applications for continuous pattern mining and data labelling. This proposed approach is based on the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) clustering algorithm. This algorithm is applied for parallel building of local clustering models on different views in each chunk of data. The MST-MVS clustering transfers knowledge learnt in the current data chunk to the next chunk in the form of artificial nodes used by the MST clustering algorithm. These artificial nodes are identified by analyzing multi-view patterns extracted at each data chunk in the form of an integrated (global) clustering model. We further show how the extracted patterns can be used for post-labelling of the chunk’s data by introducing a dedicated labelling technique, entitled Pattern-labelling. We study and evaluate the MST-MVS clustering algorithm under different experimental scenarios on synthetic and real-world data. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

As machine learning and AI continue to rapidly develop, and with the ever-closer end of Moore’s law, new avenues and novel ideas in architecture design are being created and utilized. One avenue is accelerating AI as close to the user as possible, i.e., at the edge, to reduce latency and increase performance. Therefore, researchers have developed low-power AI accelerators, designed specifically to accelerate machine learning and AI at edge devices. In this paper, we present an overview of low-power AI accelerators between 2019–2022. Low-power AI accelerators are defined in this paper based on their acceleration target and power consumption. In this survey, 79 low-power AI accelerators are presented and discussed. The reviewed accelerators are discussed based on five criteria: (i) power, performance, and power efficiency, (ii) acceleration targets, (iii) arithmetic precision, (iv) neuromorphic accelerators, and (v) industry vs. academic accelerators. CNNs and DNNs are the most popular accelerator targets, while Transformers and SNNs are on the rise.